


Second Date?

by backtoblack101



Series: The Ice-Cream Chronicles [2]
Category: Carol (2015), The Price of Salt - Patricia Highsmith
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-25
Updated: 2016-04-25
Packaged: 2018-06-04 08:41:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6650749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/backtoblack101/pseuds/backtoblack101
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So this is a followup to my (not quite) one shot 'Ice-Cream'. </p><p>Therese and Carol have a second date. At least Therese thinks it may possibly be a second date? To be honest she's not even sure the first date was a first date, so who knows?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Second Date?

**Author's Note:**

> You should probably read 'Ice-Cream' before reading this, and not just for my self-validation.

“I’m a fucking idiot. A goddamn fucking idiot.” Therese ran about her apartment, singing her new mantra to herself. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, I’m a fucking idio- Oh sweet Jesus Christ, thank god!” She spotted her USB stick lying on the floor next to her coffee table (because that was the place for it) and she practically dived across her living room (not that it was much of a dive in the first place considering how small the space was) to pick it up. “You little bastard, don’t you dare leave my sight again.”

She checked her watch. Ten past five. She’d told Carol she’d meet her at half five. Just so she could give her the photos she’d taken of Rindy on Friday. It wasn’t like a date or anything. I mean they had text one another a few times since Friday but when Carol had asked her about the pictures the previous day and Therese had agreed to meet her this evening to give them to her neither of them had prefaced the meeting as a date. So it wasn’t a date.

Right?

Right.

Therese had just changed her outfit three times because she wasn’t sure the sunshine they’d had all day would hold up and she didn’t want to be caught in the rain without a hood.

God she was fucking pathetic.

Still, that didn’t stop her checking her hair twice more before she picked up her handbag and left the apartment, almost forgetting to lock the door behind her with the way her nerves were twisting in her stomach.

Seriously, fucking pathetic.

-.-.-.-.-

They’d agreed to meet at the same bench they’d sat on when Rindy had fed the ducks, and as soon as the bench was within eye-shot Therese saw Carol already sitting there, scrolling through her phone.

Shit, she was late.

She wanted to pick up her pace, though she was also wearing a light grey button up shirt and the sun had held up so far so the last thing she wanted was pit stains by the time she reached Carol. So instead she kept her pace casual and made a mental note to invest in something other than dollar store deodorant next time she went shopping.

Carol spotted her when she was a few feet from the bench and when she looked up from her phone and smiled and Therese saw those grey-blue eyes for the first time in two days she almost dropped on the spot. Looking into them brought her right back to Friday night and she remembered Carol’s lips on hers and Carol’s hands pushing her back against the arm of the couch. She could almost feel Carol’s weight on her chest when she remembered how she’d leaned over her, kissing her jaw and nipping at her ear lobe while her own hands had roamed the expanses of Carol’s back.

Therese could feel herself blushing at the memory and so promptly decided it was best to push it to the back of her mind. Somewhere safe she could easily retrieve it from next time she had a spare half hour to herself.

“Hi,” she breathed out when she reached the bench, the single syllable barely above a whisper. Lame. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Hey.”

Carol’s lips quirked up. “Hey yourself.” She stared at Therese for a second, hovering at the edge of the bench. “Do you want to…” she motioned to the space next to her.

“Oh!” She’d barely even registered that she was still standing. “Yea, of course.” She slid onto the bench then smiled. “Sorry I’m just…”

“Incredibly nervous around me?” Carol offered mockingly.

“No! I no… that wasn’t…”

Wow Belivet, the stammering was going a real long way to prove her wrong.

“Therese…” Carol placed her hand gingerly over Therese’s knee. “I’m willing to wager if I moved that shirt collar slightly lower the whole world would be able to see the bite marks I left on your neck two nights ago. I really do think we’re past the point of nerves, don’t you?”

Therese felt a blush begin to colour her cheeks. Carol was right of course. The left column of her neck, across her collarbone, and right down her sternum were decorated in slowly fading purple bruises, each one a slightly different shade to tell the story of where Carol had paid her particular attention.

Therese nodded slowly. “Fair point…” Therese smiled suddenly. “I don’t suppose…”

Carol knew where her question was leading, and slowly began rolling up her left t-shirt sleeve, revealing an extremely distinctive bite mark on her shoulder. “Yes, you too left your mark,” she whispered, rolling back down her sleeve quickly then glancing around to make sure passers-by hadn’t noticed.

“Well you told me not to wake Rindy…”

“And your answer was to try and take a chunk out of me?” She knew Carol was just teasing. If she’d genuinely been upset about the incident she’d probably not have agreed to meet today.

“Well next time give me something other than your arm to bite down on,” Therese shot back without really thinking.

“Next time?” Carol quirked her brow.

“Well not that – I mean it’s not like I’m just here because… that isn’t –“ Jesus how did she even manage to get herself into these situations?

“Good lord Therese you’re like a deer in headlights.” Carol rolled her eyes, her comment effectively silencing Therese. “You realise I didn’t just invite you here to give me the photos of Rindy, right?” She seemed almost exasperated now so Therese remained silent. “I was rather hoping we could also grab some food or –“

“But I just ate before I-“ Therese quickly caught herself when she noticed Carol’s expression grow more and more exasperated by the second. “But I realise food wasn’t actually the point of what you were just saying there so I’m just gonna…” She ran her hands across her lips in a zipping motion and smiled when Carol laughed.

-.-.-.-.-

“So where is Rindy today anyway?”

They’d decided on a nearby hot-dog stand for food considering Therese wasn’t all that hungry, while Carol on the other hand hadn’t eaten since lunch, and once they had their food they began walking slow laps of the park, enjoying the quiet evening breeze and the slow setting sun.

“She spends Saturdays and Sundays with her father,” Carol explained, and even though she barely looked up from the napkin she was using to wipe the hotdog grease off her fingers, Therese could tell she’d hit a sore spot.

“Oh I didn’t mean to pry…”

At this Carol looked up, seeming shocked by Therese’s comment. “Oh, no, you’re not prying it’s just…” She paused for a second and sighed. “Harge, that’s my ex-husband, met someone a few months ago,” she began to explain, and once again Therese was blown away by how quickly this woman had chosen to trust her. “And I don’t know, I guess I just worry that any day now I’m going to get an email from my lawyer telling me he wants to change the custody agreement now that he's in more of a position to care for Rindy full time.”

“Oh Carol,” Therese reached out without thinking and grabbed Carol’s hand in her own. “I’m sorry.”

She didn’t quite realise what she’d done until Carol looked down at their joint hands, seeming shocked by the development.

Real smooth Belivet, you’re barely an hour into your second date and you’re already trying to hold her ha – wait, second date? Had she just given up completely on convincing herself that their first date hadn’t actually been a date? Well, they had slept together after all. Or at least they’d had sex, cuddled for a while and then Carol had very politely asked Therese if she’d mind getting a taxi home because sometimes Rindy woke up in the middle of the night and she didn’t want to have _that_ conversation right now. So really this could be considered a second da-

She was pulled from her thoughts when Carol repositioned her hand so their fingers were laced together. God if her brain didn’t short circuit from all the overanalysing she was doing it would surely short circuit from the way Carol’s thumb brushed across her knuckle.

“So…” Carol cleared her throat and changed the topic as if nothing had just happened. “Were you working today?”

“Nope, whole weekend off.” Ah she’d had such high hopes for this weekend on Friday. Now she’d have to go back to work next week and explain to Danny that, no, she didn’t work on her portfolio, instead she spent the entire weekend fawning over an older woman and hanging out with her and her five year old daughter. “I’m actually not working tomorrow either, though I’m teaching a class at the college so…”

“You teach as well?” Carol seemed impressed now, and Therese couldn’t help but smile.

“An undergrad class in building a photography portfolio,” she explained. “It’s part of my masters.”

“Encourage the photographers of tomorrow?”

Therese laughed; thinking about some of the students that had taken the class as an elective under the presumption it would just be sticking a few photos in a folder and getting a pass. “Yea, something like that.”

They walked another few steps in silence before Carol spoke again. “You know I’d really love to see your work.”

“Well I have those photos of Rindy,” Therese offered, though Carol just shook her head.

“I mean I’d quite like to see all your work,” she elaborated. “You said on Friday you strived to capture the emotion of your subject and I just think I’d really like to see how that translates in your photographs.”

“Well I’ve got my camera bag with me, I mean all I’d need is well –“ She didn’t want to explain she needed Carol’s laptop because that would imply they needed to go back to Carol’s, which they would, but that would be very forward of her to imply. Wouldn’t it?

“All you need is what Therese?” Carol prompted gently, obviously unaware of Therese’s inner struggle.

“Well I’d need a laptop and I don’t have mine with me…”

Carol just smiled. “And you didn’t want to ask because…?” Therese swore she was just doing this to her to torture her.

“Because uh…” She rolled her eyes and looked away. Carol was right; she was like a deer in fucking headlights. “Because I didn’t want you to think I was inviting myself over…”

“And what if I want you to come over?” Carol teased, already pulling on Therese’s hand and changing their course towards the west exit of the park where Carol was presumably parked today again.

“Well then that would be my problem solved, wouldn’t it…”

Carol hummed in agreement. “And what if I wanted you to stay the night?”

Therese feigned innocence. “Carol I don’t have _that_ many photos…”

-.-.-.-.-

Therese untangled herself from Carol’s arms, slid out from under the bed covers, and tip-toed across the bedroom floor to her handbag. She was careful when pulling out her camera to make sure half the contents of her bag didn’t come with it and scatter across the floor (God knows it was more than likely to happen when she was trying to be quiet).

She removed the lens cap carefully and turned it on before crawling back into bed, even more careful this time so as not to disturb the way Carol had repositioned herself when she’d no longer had Therese to embrace. The curtains were still open, and although her first shot caught an awkward shadow, the next couple were perfect. Carol’s transcendent beauty was almost like a halo illuminated in streetlight from outside, and Therese was so pre-occupied flicking back through the photos she hardly even noticed Carol stirring next to her.

“What on earth…” Carol mumbled, her voice laced heavy with sleep. “What’re you doing?”

“Oh…” Therese shut the camera off and placed it on the bed sheets between them. “I just…” She motioned towards the camera. “You looked so, well, beautiful.” She worried her bottom lip between her teeth when Carol remained silent. “And I did ask before if I could take your picture.”

“And if I remember correctly I didn’t reply,” Carol shot back, and for once Therese genuinely couldn’t tell if she was being serious.

“I can delete them, if you’d like…” She offered, though when Carol looked like she was seriously considering the offer Therese quickly continued. “Though I’d rather I didn’t.”

Carol seemed confused for a split second, then Therese watched as realisation dawned across her face. “You find me attractive.” It wasn’t a question, just a perplexed statement of truth.

Therese couldn’t help but laugh. “I find you breath taking,” she clarified.

“But I’m –“

“You’re blonde,” Therese cut in, knowing Carol was about to make reference to her age. “And you’re well-traveled, and well read, and you’ve got gorgeous long legs, and an ass to kill for.” She threw one leg over Carol’s waist and settled herself across Carol’s bare stomach. “And you’re funny, and interesting, and a great mother, and…” She paused and leaned in until her face was inches from Carol’s. “You’re thirty two, not ninety two, so stop playing the old card or our next date will be in a bingo hall.”

Then, before Carol could say a single word, she leaned in and kissed her. 

**Author's Note:**

> Now look what you've all done. All the positive feedback on the first story has turned this into a series. Honestly, I'm such a whore for praise...


End file.
